Zer0 Sum
"Zer0 Sum", also titled "Episode 1", is the first episode of Telltale Games' Tales from the Borderlands. Plot Synopsis The episode begins with Rhys walking around in a desert. He calls out to Fiona, claiming that they can work something out. He looks around and a man appears, walking towards him. "Fiona, what is there some sort of radiation leak I don't know about?" He jokingly says, only to get knocked out by the man. He wakes up, his face bruised and he is being dragged through the desert with his torso tied. The kidnapper drags him by the legs. The player can ask the kidnapper a question, which he responds, "I ask the questions." Rhys asks if he can ask himself that question. The kidnapper kicks him, claiming that he isn't a patient person and orders him to start at the beginning of his involvement with the Gortys Project. Rhys talks about his life at Hyperion, and his friend Vaughn. Rhys claims that Handsome Jack was the baddest guy of them all, and that he wanted to be just like him. Vaughn helps his friend get ready for his supposed promotion by Henderson. Rhys goes inside and is surprised to see Hugo Vasquez as the new boss. Hugo is ordering a black car from a guy named Jerry. Hugo informs Rhys that his promotion is coming. He promotes him to Assistant Vice Janitor. Hugo then reveals he threw Henderson out an airlock. Rhys can ask threatening, which will make Vasquez punch him in the face. Rhys will then walk out, tell Yvette and Vaughn what happened. Rhys tells them about Hugo's phone call about him buying a vault key. They decide to go to Pandora to buy the vault key, with the help of Vaughn gathering ten million. At Pandora, Rhys and Vaughn ask for directions to the World of Curiosities. Rudiger sees that they are Hyperion and claims that they ruined Pandora. Rudiger will spot the money case that Vaughn has handcuffed to himself. Rudiger then call his fellow bandits, and Vaughn tells Rhys to call Yvette and prime the loader bot. It is up to the player to decide what to equip the loader bot with. Rudiger will grab the money case, and get inside the car they drove here. Rudiger drives away, with Vaughn's hand still cuffed to the case. Rhys then chases after it, ordering the loader bot to chase after it. He runs into a few bandits, and hits them with the stun baton provided by Yvette. Later, he sees the loader bot holding the Hyperion car. Rhys questions Rudiger where Vaughn is. "How the hell should I know? Your bot threw us both out!" He claims. Rudiger tries to hit Rhys with his cleaver, which Rhys deflects it, killing a bandit. Rudiger raises his hand in surrender, but is hit by Rhys and he flies away and hits a sign, which makes it fall and reveals the World of Curiosities. Rhys will then tell the loader bot to put the car down. Rhys and Vaughn run to a gate, which the loader bot carries them over. He gives them a thumbs up. The player will then get the choice to evacuate the loader bot or self-destruct it. Rhys will say that he will name his first born loader bot. The two of them walk through the room, and once they reach the door - they realize it's locked. They look around for the key and Shade jumps out of nowhere. He leads them to August the guy with the vault key. Rhys can say that he's in charge now, or that Vasquez is sick. Sasha will say that she's not sure of Rhys and Vaughn. Rhys tells her that they are doing it to get at one of the biggest Hyperion scumbags. Sasha eventually goes along with it, and August decides to not do the deal. Rhys can choose to blow his mind or break his heart. Then it cuts off, back to the present. With Fiona saying, "What a steaming load of skag crap." The masked kidnapper brings them in, and Fiona tells her side of the story. She talks about Felix who raised her into a life with crime, along with her sister Sasha. Felix tells her that she must do a scam that was their biggest yet, that would set them up for life. Fiona goes to the Purple Skag. She walks in, and sees Tommy get shot by August. He sits down with her, she can say the story that Sasha assigned to her, or she can mix it up a bit. August will reach his hand to touch the Vault Key, which Fiona can stop him or not. "I've never touched anything this expensive before." He then gets a call from Hugo Vasquez. August and Sasha then leave, and so do Felix and Fiona. Felix says they'll follow them in the caravan. They listen in on the deal with August and Rhys. Felix tells Fiona to grab an item and attach it to the box with the vault key inside. She goes into the vent, and Shade pops out of nowhere, again. Fiona can choose to let him come with or tell him to go away. If you tell him to go away, he will get shot by August, and he will die. If he goes with you, he escapes the vent with you but after that we aren't aware of what happens to him. Felix, Fiona and Sasha run back to the caravan and see Rhys and Vaughn trying to steal it. They take off when August starts shooting at them. Sasha is about to push Rhys out of the caravan, but Vaughn claims he can track the money. Rhys insert Dr. Nakayama's ID and hears a voice "Did you think you could follow in my footsteps?" He wakes up and sees Felix, Sasha, Vaughn and Fiona observing a bandit camp. They take out a few bandits and get inside. Felix decides to stay behind with the caravan. Sasha and Rhys open the hatch and climb down it, while Fiona and Vaughn close the hatch, meeting the Mask Vendor. Fiona ends up convincing that they are racers and they enter the race. Meanwhile, Rhys is hacking a computer while Sasha asks to see his stun baton. Rhys can choose to trust her or not with it. Zer0 appears, and joins Rhys and Sasha in the battlefield of the race while Fiona and Vaughn are on the race with the Psycho Driver. Rhys runs after a psycho who grabs the money, which immediately gets eaten by a giant skag. Rhys gets Zer0's sword, cutting the giant skag open. Rhys goes for the money, but it flies off because of Bossanova's woofer. It lands on a car in the race. Fiona goes for it. The driver of the car shoots the psycho driving. Vaughn panics that he's next. He then detaches himself, and drives to the other side of the car which has the case inside. He shoots the bandit driving and takes control of the vehicle. The claw grabs Bossanova's base and brings it down, which causes the vehicle to fly upwards. The case flies out the vehicle and Felix catches it. Fiona jumps on the caravan and goes inside. Felix points a gun at Fiona and then escapes. Felix kicks the caravan back into the race track, he attempts to break open the case. Fiona can tell him to choke on it or warn him about it. If you warn him, he will throw the case away and run away. If you don't, he will blow up with the money. You can also shoot him, which results into Felix blowing up with the money as well. Only if you didn't shoot August's hand. Rhys sees the money blew up and he yells, "NO! no!" Zer0 then kills Bossanova and he walks off, talking to Mad Moxxi about the Gortys Project. The loader bot comes back whether you self-destructed him or not. If you self-destructed him, he'll say, "You suck." If you evacuated him, he'll say, "Righteous father! I have found you!" Either way, Rhys falls down a hole while the loader bot advises, "Try to roll with the fall!" He wakes up, hearing Vaughn calling out to see if he's okay. Rhys says Atlas tech is down here, which causes them to discover the Gortys Project. It automatically attaches itself and reveals some sort of map. The voice that Rhys has been hearing before reveals to be Handsome Jack's voice. "This, ladies and gentlemen... is the Gortys Project. And it's going to lead us to a vault. And then I'll probably kill you." Rhys looks at the AI form of Handsome Jack, stunned. In-Game Decisions This list shows some of the choices made by players that are tracked by the game. Fiona: Did you grab August's hand? * Grabbed August's Hand - 56.6% * Played it cool - 43.4% Did Shade accompany you? * Shade accompanied you - 85.9% * You didn't invite Shade - 14.1% How did you deal with Felix? * Let Felix die - 6% * Warned Felix - 28.4% * Shot Felix 65.6% Which mask did you purchase? * Purchased the Steve mask - 49% * Purchased the Psycho mask - 30.6% * Purchased the Skeletal mask - 20.4% Rhys: What happened to the Loader Bot? * Told to evacuate - 63.0% * Told to self-destruct - 37.0% Did you trust Sasha? * Trusted Sasha - 84.8% * Didn't trust Sasha - 15.2% Which did you choose? * Accepted Vasquez's deal - 9.3% * Chose Vaughn - 90.7% What Loader Bot did you request? * Riot Shield and Rockets - 13.4% * Machine Gun and Rockets - 25.8% * Machine Gun and Grenades - 46.4% * Riot Shield and Grenades - 14.4% ♙ Credits * Rhys * Fiona * Masked Kidnapper * Vaughn * Hugo Vasquez * Zer0 * Sasha * Handsome Jack (AI) * Shade * Yvette * Felix * August * Tommy * Mask Vendor * Tector Hodunk * Rudiger * Loader Bots * Mad Moxxi (Voice Only) * Bossanova Deaths * Unnamed Bandits * Tommy * Shade (Determinant) * Unnamed Psychos * Felix (Determinant) * Bossanova Impacts TBA Promotional Poster Trivia * First appearance of Rhys. * First appearance of Fiona. * First appearance of the Masked Kidnapper. * First appearance of Vaughn. * First appearance of Hugo Vasquez. * First appearance of Zer0. * First appearance of Sasha. * First appearance of Handsome Jack. * First (and last - Determinant) appearance of Shade. * First appearance of Yvette. * First (and last - Determinant) appearance of Felix. * First appearance of August. * First (and last) appearance of Tommy. * First appearance of the Mask Vendor. * First appearance of Tector. * First appearance of Rudiger. * First appearance of Loader Bots. * Mad Moxxi and Marcus Kincaid do not appear in this episode, but their voices are heard. They are both still credited. * First (and last) appearance of Bossanova. * First (and last) appearance of Bewm. * First (and last) appearance of Professor Nakayama. * First (and last) appearance of Commandant Steele. * This episode features the corpses of three characters from previous Borderlands games. Bewm (Borderlands 2), Professor Nakayama (Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel) and Commandant Steele (Borderlands). * This episode has two determinant deaths. ** Felix can die if you don't warn him about the bomb in the money case. ** Shade can die if you tell him to go away when crawling in the vent. ** If you saved both/one of them, they may appear in future episodes. * This episode was streamed live on Twitch on November 24th 2014. Achievements